kaulbr
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
# Posts: 275
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 15:35
Hello all,
I have a site that was done for a new client that went live about 4-5 weeks ago. The site is for an individual who is running for state senate. All we need it to do as far as SEO goes is rank #1 for his name. The client doesn't have much money so we can't do a full site optimization for them but I figured getting his site to rank #1 for his name shouldn't be hard. Well, it took a couple weeks and the site ranked #1 and then all of the sudden it dropped from every search egnine. This was several weeks ago and still nothing. The site has plenty of content with his name, decent page titles, decent meta tags, and even a couple incoming links.
When I do site:removeddomain.org I get 1 result (in Google) and when I click on the link that says 'similiar results' I get nothing. When I do site:removeddomain.org -inurl:www I get one result again (the home page without the www) and the same result if I click on the similiar results link. If I search site:www.removeddomain.org I get the same results as my first search.
Anyone have any ideas what is happening? Could it just be because the site is only a month or so old? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
[ Message was edited by: Logan 03/22/2006 08:16 am ... Reason: removed domain, reference in profile ]
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Logan
Joined: Aug 14, 2002
# Posts: 3749
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 15:57
It could be because it is so new, but i don't think so. if you want to rank and be included on a consistent basis I would focus on getting more links to the site. I wouldn't expect to be consistently included within Google if I only have a link or two on another site. You don't need a ton of links, but I would get more than one or two. This should also help with Yahoo where the site is included but #6 for his name.
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SportsGuy
Staff
Joined: Aug 30, 2002
# Posts: 3603
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 16:08
Yep - needs some more link Brent.
If he's running for senate, see if they can approach folks who've donated to his campaign. They may have websites and be willing to link to his site.
Get cracking on some directory submissions - though depending on when the election is, DMOZ may not even get it listed in time...seriously. For Yahoo - this is a pay the $299 thing.
First off, target site possibly related to his supporters or the election in general.
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kaulbr
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
# Posts: 275
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 17:39
Thanks guys. How come he was #1 for a short period though? Is it just one of those SEO things that really has no explanation?
What do you guys make of my results from doing the tests;
site:domain.com
site:domain.com -inurl:www
site:www.domain.com
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 18:01
What were the results of those tests?
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philh
Joined: Sep 14, 2001
# Posts: 3050
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 18:02
Typical of Google - I've seen this happen before. Get good positions when first launched and spidered, then after a few days/weeks drops like a stone.
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kaulbr
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
# Posts: 275
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 18:22
Using Google, this is what I get...
site:domain.org - I get 1 result (the home page) and when I click on the link that says 'similiar results' I get nothing.
site:domain.org -inurl:www - I get 1 result again (the home page without the www) and again nothing if I click on the similiar results link.
site:www.domain.org I get the same results as my first search.
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panana
Joined: Aug 23, 2005
# Posts: 14
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:08
Good Morning, everybody -
If I could ask a related question. In checking a client's site, I've found something curious - at least for me it is. When I type in 'domain.com' and 'www.domain.com' in the address bar, both resolve to http://www.domain.com.
However, when I do the 'site:' test on Google, I get results for all 3. Here's the #s:
site:domain.com - 42
site:domain.com -www inurl - 50
site:www.domain.com - 84
Do I still need to set up a 301 redirect? I assume I do, from looking at the Google stats. But if it's already resolving to the right address, does that mean that the credit is all being applied to 'www.domain.com'? I want to be sure that if I do add the 301 redirect on domain.com that it's not creating problems needlessly.
thanks
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:24
Adding the redirect SOLVES the problems. Make sure you add one on your site and test it with WebBug.
The site you looked at has a problem (both www and non-www are listed), but if they now have the redirect in place, Google will start fixing that problem within weeks.
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:27
For the second search you said: site:domain.com -www inurl
That second search should be: site:domain.com -inurl:www
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panana
Joined: Aug 23, 2005
# Posts: 14
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:33
Sorry -
Sorry, I reversed the order when typing it that time. Staring too long at the screen today. Thanks very much for the fast, and helpful, answer. The ISP is a difficult one to deal with - you have no access to coding, back end, etc. You have to go through the ISP people.
It's set up especially for the industry my client's in - it makes it easy for people to get going with a database, etc without knowing anything. Unfortunately, it makes my job difficult. Thanks again -
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:42
For those three searches A, B, C, it should be that A = B + C but you have 50 + 84 which is 134, not 42. Something is seriously wrong there.
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kaulbr
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
# Posts: 275
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:55
What about my results? Can you make any sense of those?
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 19:59
Well, Google hasn't got past your root index page, or has gt past it and does not want to list any of it.
Run your site through Xenu LinkSleuth and see what you get.
Check a few pages with http://validator.w3.org/detailed.html and make sure you fix all the listed errors.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2061
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 20:04
[snip]
How come he was #1 for a short period though?
[snip]
Often the case with new sites or heavily revised content. Theory being that Google wants to know what sort of clicks the site attracts and (if you have the toolbar installed) how long you stay on the site and whether or not the user drills down through the site.
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kaulbr
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
# Posts: 275
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Posted: 2006-Mar-22 20:24
I appreciate all the help here.
Any alternative to Xenu LinkSleuth that would work on a Mac?
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panana
Joined: Aug 23, 2005
# Posts: 14
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Posted: 2006-Mar-24 20:29
I hate to keep this going, but - I finally talked to the client's ISP. Their technicians stated that they automatically set up a 301 redirect for sites. That makes sense since both the www and the non-www resolve to the same url.
But there's still the problem with the Google site: test. All 3 have results and they don't add up either. I don't know what to do since the techs claim to have gotten an answer directly from Google (don't ask me how, I was communicating with them through an intermediary) and they were doing everything in tune with that. Basically, that's the end of it as far as they're concerned.
Is there anything else this could be? Assuming that the ISP is correctly using the 301 redirect? I'm at a loss now. Thanks for all the help -
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g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
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Posted: 2006-Mar-24 21:24
Look for an online HTTP header checker. Google lists many.
Try several of them and make sure you get the right response codes back.
If Google has listed both non-www and www then at the time those pages were listed there was NO redirect in place.
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